Welcome to Hatfield
Music Banjo Supplies, located in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee in the foothills
of the beautiful Smoky Mountains.

Jack Hatfield the owner has been picking banjo for
over forty years. As an upcoming banjoist he placed in several
local and state banjo contests and in 1987 was a finalist in the National Banjo Championship in Winfield, Kansas.
He taught banjo, guitar, mandolin and fiddle for seventeen years
full time before moving to Pigeon Forge to perform at venues such as Dollywood theme park,
the Dixie Stampede and the East Tennessee convention circuit.
Jack worked with internationally renowned mandolinist Red Rector and
performed regularly with Lawrence Welk alumni Ava Gardner and Dick
Dale at their show in Pigeon Forge. True Blue Band members include great vocalist and t rhythm man Paul Brewster (now with Ricky Skaggs) and guitarist Richard Bennett. Jack played a 15 year solo gig at Duffy's restaurant
in Gatlinburg on weekends and performed solo
the Alabama
Grill and Walden's Landing in Pigeon Forge as well as hundreds of weddings, receptions and conventions with his band True Blue. Jack has appeared in two full length feature films and three syndicated television shows.

Jack authored several instruction
books which can be found on this site. Some are self-published by his own company Hatfield Music and some are published by Mel
Bay Publications, Inc., the largest publisher of
stringed instrument instruction books in the world. He started writing as a columnist for Banjo Newsletter magazine in 1976.
He wrote the Scruggs
Corner column for five years, the Beginner's
Corner column for seven years, and for
twelve years authored a column called Systems
and Concepts, featuring music theory and "big picture" discussions. Jack's latest books are Backup Techniques on the Five-String Banjo and Best of Jack Hatfield by Mel Bay publications. His newest Mel Bay release is Exercises for Three-Finger Banjo, a unique book featuring over two hundered sixty exercises covering all facets of three-finger banjo.

Jack was on the faculty of very first banjo camp, the Tennessee Banjo Institute in 1988. Since then he has been Bluegrass Director of all three of Banjo Newsletter'sMaryland Banjo Academys and the Nashville Academy of Traditional Music. He has been director of the banjo workshop at the SPBGMA (Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America) Bluegrass Convention in Nashville for nineteen years. In 2006 Jack established his own Smoky Mountain Banjo Academy near Gatlinburg, TN which was held in conjunction with Five-String Fest in 2014. In 2015 Jack embarked on a big renovation project, and now holds camps in the Hatfield Music Barn adjacent to his shop, overlooking Pigeon Forge.

Though Hatfield Music specializes
primarily in bluegrass banjo instruction and supplies, they also have
a few other books and accessories that other acoustic
musicians will also find useful - items like strings, straps,
electronic
tuners, and other goodies. Along
with over eight hundred-fifty tablature arrangements and the dozen
or so instruction books he has authored, Jack either invented
and/or
manufactured
several unique items such as the Banjo Board,
the Pick Pouch, Anti-Gravity strap, the
patented Capo Caddy, and Raejusters (adjustable
resonator screws invented by Jim Rae). These
are items that can only be purchased
from Hatfield Music. Jack also re-designed the Gerald Jones Acoustic Plus banjo pickup, now called the Jones-Hatfield banjo pickup. You will find here most of the products a banjo
player will ever need at
very competitive prices. If you do not find what you want, shoot Jack an
email or give him a call and he will try to run it down for you.

Smoky Mountain Banjo
Academy at Hatfield Music Barn

SPBGMA/BNL workshop with J.D. Crowe

Jack Hatfield Banjo Workshops

Besides selling banjo products, Jack
Hatfield teaches solo workshops and directs his own banjo workshops and camps. He has taught at banjo workshops
all over the USA and in England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada and Australia. Jack was on
the staff
of the very first major banjo camp, the Tennessee Banjo Institute in
1988, and was subsequently Bluegrass Director for all three of Banjo Newsletter's Maryland
Banjo Academys. He was banjo director of Chuck Stearman's Nashville
Academy of Traditional Music at Nashville's Opryland Hotel in 1994. For fourteen years Jack has been director of the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America (SPBGMA) banjo workshop in Nashville which features top performers, authors, luthiers
and setup specialists. When Banjo Newsletter decided to curtail their Maryland
Banjo Academy, Jack decided to take up where they left off. In
April 2004 he directed his first three-day banjo camp, the Smoky Mountain Banjo Academy. The 2004 SMBA featured several renowned artists, professional teachers and authors including television personalities Larry McNeely from the Glen Campbell Good Time Hour and Doug Dillard, banjo player for "The Darlin's"(Dillards) of Andy of Mayberry. The first SMBA was
a huge success so Jack decided to make it an annual event. SMBA camps and SPBGMA workshops have featured authors, luthiers, teachers and
recording artists such as Tom Adams, Eddie Adcock, Dave
Ball, Richard Bailey, Dave Ball, Rik Barron, Ron Block, Eddie Collins, Charlie Cushman, J.D. Crowe, Gary Davis, Janet Davis, Doug Dillard, Wayne
Erbsen, Bill Evans, Bela Fleck, Laurie Grundy, Jack Hicks, Steve Huber, Gerald Jones, Bill Keith, Andy King, John Lawless, Dan Levensen, Tom Nechville, Ned Lubereki, Tom Morgan, Randall
Morton,
Frank Neat, Ken Perlman, James
McKinney,
Larry McNeely, Ross Nickerson, Curtis McPeake, Randall Morton, Sonny Osborne, Jim Panky, Butch Robins, Rick Sampson, Sammy
Shelor,
Roger Simpson, Mark Smith, Snuffy Smith, Ron Stewart, Herb Trotman, Leroy Troy, Pete Wernick, Kristin Scott-Benson, Frank Lee, Barry Abernathy, Doug Dillard, Arthur Hatfield, Ira Gitlin, Rex Mcgee, Tony Ellis, and others. Russ Jeffers from Opryland's Smoky Mountain Sunshine band has been the reliable concert MC. The camp was held at Five-String Fest in Lawndale NC. in 2014. In 2015 it found a new home at the Hatfield Music Barn adjacent to Hatfield Music, which Jack rennovated for events such as this.

Tour Smoky Mountain Banjo Academy:

Other Interests

When
Jack is not servicing customers, writing columns or books, updating one of his websites, making
Banjo Boards, Raejusters, AntiGravity straps
or Capo
Caddies,
renovating his music barn, teaching workshops, maintaining two rental houses or performing, he
is often in the gym or on the tennis court. Knee pain prevents volleyball and running now, but before he retired the
Hatfield Music Gatlinburg recreation league
volleyball team was league champs six seasons in a row.
In tennis, Jack has bee to USTA state playoffs ten onsecutive years on different teams, won State and advanced to USA Southern Section playoffs three times, and in 2014 he captained a forty and over 4.0 level team that had an undefeated 17 - 0 record until they reached the USTA National Championships in Rancho Mirage, CA. They fell short of their National Championship goal, but it was the tennis experience of a lifetime for Jack and the team members. Fewer than one half of one percent of all USTA players ever advance to the National Champonships.

Jack founded the Sevier County Junior Tennis League in 2008 and coaches the Pigeon Forge Middle School team. The SCJTL has been taugt about 700 elementary and middle school kids this great game and provided opportunity for organuzed competition. If you visit Pigeon Forge, don't just bring your banjo...bring your tennis racquet!

Jamming between takes with Pillar of Light Director
Steve Smiley & cast member

Jack also appeared in his second feature length movie, playing fiddle in a one minute scene, and the music
was recorded live! (not edited in from tracks like in the first movie!) The
third in a series of Pillar
of Light movies was released in 2006. Click
to see movie website and other on-set photos.

Still shot of scene in the Work and the Glory - Pillar
of Light movie

Catching some air at "the sinks"

Jack & Earl Scruggs in Earl's kitchen, 2002

Jack & son Daniel skiing

#1 son Daniel graduates from Vanderbilt University Suma Cum Laude (is that the way it's spelled? ...really? )